the oscars, huh…

i just got done watching the oscars. my predictions in the major categories were:

best supporting actor - javier bardeim
best supporting actress - tilda swinton
best actor - daniel day lewis
best actress - marion cotillard
best animated - persepolis, i can’t believe that surf’s up is in the same category.
best director - Paul Thomas Anderson - there will be blood
best movie - there will be blood

i was only wrong on the last three.

the show itself was really entertaining this year. jon stewart did a really good job as host and the award speeches were cut very short. there were still plenty of montages and needles speeches about the accounting firm, which i have to say were done really well. i wonder if jon stewart brought his writers from the daily show with him?

also some soldier named joseph smith said one of the nominees, that was a bit surreal.

viewings from the queue.

the invasion - i had read several bad reviews of this movie, but i still wanted to see it because of my admiration of nicole kidman and daniel craig. i think they make a hot couple, have you seen the golden compass? this movie was a mess from the beginning. this was a sad sad movie. it was obviously filmed before daniel craig got all buff and sexy for james bond, and they apparently had to reshoot some scenes after he buffed up, the differences were so obvious. the invasion would almost be so bad it’s good, were it not for nicole kidman and daniel craig, so it’s just sad.

creatures from the pink lagoon - this movie was recommended to us by netflix. when i saw it starred nick garrison, one of my favorite actors out of seattle, i added it to our queue. it was a delightfully campy gay zombie (very) independent film.

dedication - this movie got added to the queue becaue amy sedaris was in the credits. it turns out she is only in it for a few minutes. the movie though wasn’t that bad. it follows a typical rom com formula while being a darkly quirky tale of a childrens book author and his illustrators. dedication almost of falls into the trap of trying to be deeper than it really is. the movie did win my heart, sort of, when the author (who is terrified of driving in cars) is riding in the back seat of a car clutching his messenger bag and wearing a helmet. billy crudup really pulled that scene off.

okay, i get it.

becuase of his marvelous book the botany of desire i will probably buy every book michael pollan writes. the botany of desire was written so well, and gave such an interesting perspective on how plants can shape lives and society, it quickly became one of my favorite books. not to mention one of my most recommended and lent out, and i hardly ever lend out books. my copy of the botany of desire has made it all around the world and is unfortunately missing. if someone reading this has it, please give it back.

in defense of food, his third book about food since the botany of desire, just dosen’t live up to its predecessors. while the omnivore’s dilemma was far from perfect, it had quite a bit of interesting information, much of which is repeated in this book. having read nutritionist marion nestle food triology food politics, safe food and what to eat this book is kind of redundant. if you can read what the band around the lettuce on the cover says (”eat food, not too much, mostly plants”), then you get the point of the book.

the writing style that i fell in love with in the botany of desire, which was barely there in the omnivore’s dilemma, is gone and replaced with kind of an upper class smugness. he seems to assume, and probably likely so, that only the well off would read this book.

so if you haven’t read the marion nestle books, or michael pollan’s previous books, you will probably enjoy this book, or at least find it interesting. really though i think everyone should just run our and read the botany of desire.

all i need?

radiohead is coming to america yet again. as usual i plan on seeing them as many times as i possibly can. over the last couple tours i have driven up to vancouver b.c., and flown to nyc and northern california. this tour shouldn’t be much different. i am planning on going to vancouver b.c. and seattle, and have already mobilized my east coast team to be ready for when the nyc shows were announced. planning my trip “home” to be around the shows. they announced the cities awhile ago, and they have been slowly announcing the dates, painfully slowly.

last week it was announced that they were going to headline two days of the all points west festival, in new jersey on august 8th and 9th. i got excited figuring that the nyc dates would be announced soon. then it was announced that those festival dates were the only nyc appearance this summer. i’m not really a big fan of festivals, so i am a little saddened. i was looking forward to seeing them at madison square garden again.

festivals to me are more like and endurance tests, how many people can you handle? how many other bands can you sit through? how much are you willing to pay for food and water? are you willing to use that port-a-potty?

i will admit that there are several other bands playing both days that i wouldn’t mind seeing; animal collective (huge plus), girl talk, underworld and a couple others. i don’t think that would make up for the torture of the rest of it though.

should i suck it up and go to a festival?

where are the west coast dates?

“jigsaw falling into place”

“unravel” bjork cover

“15 step”

the grammy’s could learn something.

a couple of weeks ago keight, morgan and i suffered through the many hours of the grammy awards just so we could see the rihanna and amy winehouse performances. in the tradition of the grammy’s they ruined the show with too much talking and performances that just killed any joy that one can get out of the music. why do they feel the need to make everyone collaborate, beyonce does not need tina turner, and no one really needed to see fergie with john legend. thankfully i blocked most of the gospel travesty (featuring aretha franklin) from my memory. rihanna’s perfermance was ruined by the awkwardness of mixing her with the time, be thankful i couldn’t find a decent video of it. the only thing that saved the show was kanye west’s performance with daft punk, and amy winehouse. ms. winehouse couldn’t be paired with anyone because due to “visa issues” she couldn’t make it to the show, so she performed from a club in london.

the grammy people do a good job of keeping the performances off you tube, so here is the best i can do. and i don’t know how long they’ll be there.

kanye and daft punk performing “stronger”, kanye went on to do “hey mama” also. this video must have been made by a daft punk fan. really your not missing much.

amy winehouse singing “you know i’m know good” and “rehab”, i think the club setting really suits her.

onto what the grammy’s could learn. the brit awards were held yesterday, while i couldn’t watch the show, the performances are all over the web. they don’t seem to mess with the artist. sure there were collaborations, they just weren’t as forced as the grammy’s were.

mika opened the show with a medley of his hits and a guest apperance by beth ditto of the gossip. sadly she is a little lost in the mix. he is not really that known in the u.s, i became quite smitten with his album last summer.

rihanna performs “umbrella” with the klaxons as her band. i know nothing of the klaxons, but i am strangely growing to love rihanna. i threw my hipster cred out the window long ago.

and of course ms. winehouse made an apperance doing a kind a shaky “love is a losing game”. they tried to capture the club feel, but just don’t quite do it. she really has something though.

they smashed it.

the second episode of america’s best dance crew was a little boring.  due to too much product product placement in the announcements and introductions (thanks tivo) the performances are still too short.  i’m looking forward to when the group’s can do longer performances.

iconic - still my favorite, despite this somewhat unoriginal performance, i loves me some broadway influence. they have to work on their costumes though.

kaba modern - they are the obvious winners, by far the most together group

jabbawockeez - i hate the masks, but i give them credit for staying so in sync.

she just put the cat in the bag.

portland’s loss is new york’s gain.

good luck keight!

no one will ever defeat the bokoblins like you do.

who do i love?

this guy!

happy valentines day sweetie pie.

bunnies, it must be bunnies!

i have to thank keight for pointing this adorable amy sedaris commercial for microsoft.

while i’m at it i might as well post more amy.

amy in dolly parton’s video!

amy with todd oldham crafting! it’s a little quiet.

amy on sesame street!
part 1

part 2

god i love her!

another reason to dislike nixon.

after months of languishing at the top of our netflix queue with the dreaded “long wait” next to it, we finally got sicko the other day.  and conveniently morgan and i were both sick last night so we watched it.

sicko seemed to be a little toned down for a usual michael moore documentary.  which can be a good thing, he can tend to go over the top sometimes, certain parts of fahrenheit 911 come to mind.   unlike his other films though sicko didn’t really tell us anything that we didn’t already know, in a way it was nice to put a face to the name.  moore does what he does best, expose facts that should be public knowledge, but aren’t.  they only thing that worries me is that only people that already agree with him will see this, i don’t think it will really solve anything in the long run. which leads me to wonder…

has any documentary ever made a big difference?

regardless of that.  sicko is a great documentary, with sad and touching moments handled without exploitation. like all of michael moore documentaries, it should be seen by everyone.